A Quest

To get excited about school again after Christmas break my knights and shield maidens were summoned on a quest. They received messages via their owls in the morning telling them to prepare to face many perils and to bring back as much knowledge as they could find. They were then sent on a scavenger  hunt to find bits of information on the middle ages. Anytime there was bickering they were sent to destroy the dragon. At the end of their quest they were rewarded with root beer floats. 

armed for battle

We will conquer! I love this picture!

And I love this one even more! The boys and Alahna are hiding from a potential threat to their mission... a car! Anna is hiding because she is so embarrassed to be seen outside like this!

Potions

Because potions class was a big part of Harry Potter, it has been a big part of our school year at Quercus Alba. We have had many crazy experiments, but not so many pictures of them! Here is Anna when we made slime. She loved it, but some others were not as enthusiastic about the gooey substance.

Motte and Bailey's

Earlier in the year (man, I am so behind in my blogging) we studied medieval castles. The kids used salt dough to make motte and bailey castles. These castles could be built in a matter of days by an army and were used by William the Conqueror in the Battle of Hastings.

Weekend at the Beach

David's parents invited us to join them at his mom's cousin's rented beach house for conference weekend. We had a great time, but it is probably safe to say we didn't get as much out of conference at we normally do! Thank goodness for DVRs! It was a little on the chilly side most the time we were there so there wasn't much for playing in the ocean. But we had fun hanging out on the pier, collecting sea shells, and playing in the sand.

Anna and Alahna dug a tunnel in the sand. Anna started digging a hole and when Alahna started digging one too they decided to try to connect their holes. We were all ecstatic when their hands met and they completed their tunnel!

Pyramus and Thisby

We just finished a component in which we spent some time studying Shakespeare. I was concerned that the boys would be too young and not understand it much, but that fear was completely put out of my mind after our first play, Hamlet. They loved it. I found an audio version of it for children and they listened to it every night for a week. We also studied King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew.

The kids put on the play within a play, "Pyramus and Thisby", from a Midsummer's Night Dream and William was Lion. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. We laughed and laughed and are still laughing about it now!

transplayroom railroad

After learning about the transcontinental railroad, Robert decided to build one using the geotrax set. He was so proud that he made it from one end of the playroom to the other.

A little update on Robert- His patch time has increased from 2hrs/day to 4. He will be fitted for new AFO's (his braces on his legs) later this week and has an apt with the neurosurgeon next week to discuss surgery again.  But on a fun note... he has started t-ball and LOVES it! I will post pictures of that later!

Mad Scientist

The girls have been enjoying potions class with our new chemistry set.